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Has anyone owned or shot a Remington 552, which apparently shoots both .22LR and .22Short? After some internet reading, I'm thinking this might be the .22 rifle for me.

I just bought a Ruger 10/22 at Academy this week, haven't shot it yet, but kind of having buyer's remourse already. My thought was to buy the 10/22 (cheapest version they had), add one of those ultra lite Magnum Research graphite barrels and a slick target stock and make it into a little mini tack driver. Then I got home and opened up the 10/22 for inspection and pre-cleaning ... yikes, that little gun kind of a pain to put back together - the charging handle assembly and that long thin recoil spring were giving me fits. And I was disappointed with the new plastic trigger group - one of the pins kept sliding out on its own - almost lost the darn lil thing twice.

Anyway, my history with 22s begins and ends with my grandpa's ol' Winchester 74 in .22 short. If they still made this rifle I would just buy a new one today.I just got the firing pin fixed on this rifle, and realize that I probably need to take it easy on the ol girl. This is the easiest rifle to disassemble and clean I've ever owned - push the finger-size spring-loaded bolt retaining pin, slide out the bolt assembly, remove the buttstock ammo tube and you've field stripped it. That simple. Even taking it down to the core parts is only a few more steps and about 5 screws - the trigger and guard come off, the buttstock ammo tube guide comes out, and the barrel/receiver assembly pops off.

The Remington 552 seems the closest thing I can find to the old Winchester 74 - ammo tube up front under barrel, appears to be a nice man-size construction with a real polished wood stock and bright polished blued barrel and receiver. I also like the solid feel of the Browning SA22, but it is a bit smaller and pricier.

So I'm just looking for feedback on anyone who's used a 552. Likes/dislikes? Or any other recommended .22 rifles?

I have a 552 and two 10/22's. I don't care for the 10/22. My recommendation would be to look for a Marlin 60. They are cheaper than the Remington and have a reputation for outstanding accuracy. It feels like a 'real' rifle compared to the 10/22.

I can't give you a fair assessment of the 552. I knowingly bought a used one that didn't work properly as a project gun to have something to piddle with.

OTOH, I've never heard of a Marlin 60 that didn't work.

http://www.marlinfirearms.com/Firearms/ ... ing/60.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mike1951 wrote:OTOH, I've never heard of a Marlin 60 that didn't work.

http://www.marlinfirearms.com/Firearms/ ... ing/60.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have a model 60 that refuses to extract lol. Everything I have read on them says when they start acting up better to replace the whole rifle than try to fix it. That said I bought a 10/22 the week after I bought the model 60 and have been busy putting pretty stuff on it. In all honesty I think the nicest .22 I have is my Marlin 25n, it is a bit ugly with the mag hanging out of it feels rather nice in the hands.

I have both 2 Marlins (22lr-from a pawnshop $50 and .22 from sportsacademy $200). These were bought orginally to let me 10yr old to have some fun while I am at the range. This past weekend my 17 and 10 year olds joined me and we spend over 3 hours shooting paper. For the price I would go with a Marlin if all you are going to do is have fun! the .22 had about 200 rounds fired through it and no problems had to force my kids to let me shoot a couple just to see how they were hitting center @ 100yds with 3x9 cheap scope!

Dad's got an old 552 Speedmaster that he bought back in the 70's. We've probably ran 20K rounds of ammo through that old rifle. Had intermittent jamming issues until Dad removed the shell casing deflector-since then,not a single problem. It does need a new firing pin-it finally broke a few years ago. You'll get nothing but praise for that old rifle from me.
JL

Thanks all, I'll have to look into the Marlin 60. Looks like a nice gun for the money. I think I've decided that, if I'm going to stick with a mag-fed .22, I'll just stick with the 10/22 and trick it out with barrel/stock etc. But part of me loves the simplicity of the old tube feeders.

The Rem 552 seems more robust than the Marlin, with higher quality wood furniture and possibly higher quality blued steel? I'm definitely passing on the Win 74 to my son when he's old enough to appreciate it (will just buy him a 10/22 or Marlin or whatever to start when he's younger - he's only 4 months now, so I have time), but part of me would like to start a new family tradition with something equally as solid and nice as that Win 74 ... seems the Rem 552 might fit this part of the equation better than Marlin?

Interesting tidbit on removing the case deflector helping the 1970s 552 run better. Does having the charging handle on the left side of the receiver become bothersome at all? Or do you get used to it quickly?

austinrealtor wrote: Does having the charging handle on the left side of the receiver become bothersome at all? Or do you get used to it quickly?

That's the only semi-auto 22 I was around growing up,so it was just normal for the handle to be on the left side. I never noticed a difference really.
JL

I have a Rem 552 that my dad bought for my grandfather in 1955 I think. When my grandfather passed away in 1963, it came to me. I can never remember the gun malfunctioning, ever. There is no way that I could accurately count the number of rounds that I have fired through this rifle, must be way over 100,000.

When I was in high school my buddies and I would go out on a weekend night and do something that is politically incorrect today, we would go to the city dump and shoot rats! If I remember correctly the 552 will hold 21 shorts. I would load up with short hollow points and shoot rats! I am sure that I even mixed Long Rifle, Longs and Shorts in the same loading and as I said, I can never remember the rifle failing to feed and fire.

For those of you who have never been politically incorrect and gone to a city dump to shoot rats, here is how we did it in the 60’s-

1. Get 4, 5, or 6 buddies together with cars. At night, late at night.
2. Go by the butcher shop and get all of the scraps that they will give you.
3. Go by the feed store and buy or beg some tow sacks and bailing wire.
4. Go out to the dump and find a flat area free of trash and brush close to the pile of new garbage.
5. Put the meat scraps into 2 or even three layers of tow sacks and wire them shut.
6. Get the cars in a semi-circle where the headlights will light up the area.
7. Put out the tow sacks and smoke a cigarette. I said this was politically incorrect!
8. Turn on the headlights all at once and start shooting!

All in all, this was a great way to get past a Friday or Saturday night in the sticks!

By the way, we never shot each other or our cars and back then it was even legal to do this!